The Need for Change

We now understand that in our children’s future, they're likely to have at least five different careers - most of which don't exist yet. They'll have to cope with problems we can't imagine, using tools that haven't yet been created. They will be living and engaging in a world that is vastly different from that in which we grew up. How do you educate a child for that?

We must change our education systems to make sure that the next generation have the necessary 21st century skills to thrive in a future they're going to invent and create.

The fundamental belief held by 21 Foundation is that learning is the single most important determinant of humankind’s future. However global education is in crisis: underdeveloped countries are suffering from an increasing lack of accessibility to education whilst developed nations have seen little change in teaching methods in over a century. Costs are spiraling, whilst the quality of the schooling being provided is falling. Teaching practices have not kept up with the times; any changes introduced have been, at best, incremental and fragmented.

There are many published theories on the causes of this failure. It is our firm belief that the root of the problem lies in an entrenched, rigid system that is resistant to re-engineering by the educators and management teams at its core. Those who do call for a radical overhaul in light of learning research, technological advances and shifting needs in the world around us, lack the support they need to bring about effective change. For over a century school curricular have been viewed through the same lenses: prescribed content and skills to be acquired at prescribed stages, with more emphasis on “passing” to the next stage than on acquiring knowledge and abilities that have value beyond the classroom.

Educators, futurists and corporate leaders alike agree that current curriculum models are reflective of an outdated learning methodology. There is a recognized “knowledge practice gap” in the field of education. We know more than we “do”; and we do things we know do not really work. Infrastructures are outdated and a poor match for the new understanding of what it means to be “educated”, a new approach is needed.

21 Foundation was created to take up the challenge of facilitating a global change in Learning and address the global Learning Crisis.